Dreadnought Strategem

[renegadewarp]

Ok so as the title says I have a pretty simple question and I would like your guys opinion. No this is not a thread discussing the "crazed" rule or the views people have on dreadnoughts.

 

The question is how do you use a dreadnought. Aside from walk, shoot, melee what can it me good against how should he be used what are his main things that are good I mean like for instance I heard some talk of yes he can kill regular infantry in CC but its not necessarily his job to destroy the whole unit but more or less tie them up for the entirety of the game since they "if not equipped propperly" couldnt take him down.

 

Also the shooting aspect is a dreadnought a better vehicle shooter atter or more of a troop killer more effectiveness? Basically the question is as it is How do you use a dreadnought "crazed rule" aside

[minigun762]

Its hard to say "crazed aside" when its a key element of the model.

 

That being said, the most typical way is 2x DCCW. The plan is simple, you just move/run, move/run, move/run/assault. You have a fair number of attacks and 2 S10 weapons so you're likely to tear something apart. Plus if you do die, you're only 100 points so its not a huge loss.

[the jeske]

if I were to take the dread assault force in an apo game [what I wouldnt do , not with the number of cheap D class weapons runing around this days] I would take the BA ones much better , even the "crazy"[they do have rage] DC dreads are much better then the chaos versions.

[Hellios]

Stick dreadnought in Dreadclaw, land dreadclaw.

 

Dreadnought walks out and with luck the nearest things (well thre is the droppod but that can fly away in the next turn ;)) are now enemy units... If you go crazy... well he hasn't got far to go, if he suffers from fire frenzy... they will suffer from it and if he behaves "normally" then do what the hell you like.

[renegadewarp]

I mean in regular games can't use the dreadclaw ;)

[the jeske]

you dont use dreads in normal games just like you dont use spawns or possessed.

[Dan The Deamon]

Here's what i've been doing lately. I arm my dread with twin linked Autocannons and extra armor. Deploy him where you expect the fighting to be the fiercest and give him a little extra room, like 6 more inches than you normally would. Roll your dice, if he Fire Frenzies, scatter like cockroaches so that he vents his rage on the enemy. With Autocannons he's likely to damage just about anything. If he rolls normally, or crazed, then all is still good.

 

I like to play defensive in a lot of games and he forces me to strike early in a lot of situations by just running away from him and into my enemies. in the last 4 games i've played with him he's rolled fire frenzy twice on the first turn, and at least once after that. I find the best troops to play alongside him are plague marines and oblits. My oblits will still get a 2+ save and they have enough wounds in the event he does hurt them, and while the plagues are wounded on 2's they have full armor and feel no pain. Keep him away from rhinos.

 

I used to run a missile launcher and CCW but my results were always poor. While you mitigate a lot of damage from fire frenzy to your own troops your damage while sane is very minimal.

[Corpse.]

Well...

 

1: Stick the DCCW dreadnought as close to the enemy and their path as possible.

Means sticking it near an objective and advance beyond that objective between the enemy and the objective. Putting in the middle or as forward as possible like in corner deployment, with any luck second turn or first turn with lash is possible. So on...

 

2: Having a hazardous dreadnought (often with missile launcher and DCCW) sit on an objective the enemy has to take in order to win.

Certain armies where anti tank is dominant, powerfist+melta units etc will do well against this. However against eldar, especially eldar that have troops without anti tank weapons like avenger squads have a tough time taking this objective. Since eldar rely on speed and you can always walk the dread back into position if it runs at the enemy, you have a decent chance of keeping it. Even against a wraithlord if you fire at it every chance you get on it's way to you.

 

3: Pushing with force, using other units that are similar, like defilers, abbadon, terminators and other tough stuff.

It is arguable that if either 3 terminators are tougher or one dreadnought is tougher. Good to have a mix for some armies to come with weakness, or to press on with lots of one type to enforce your knowledge of your weakness and to act soon to derail anything that is that weakness early on. (balanced armies don't come with a lot of your weakness usually)

 

That's the usual tactics... A few times I hid the dread behind some terrain until I had all the long range anti tank stuff dead in a lower points game then rush to an objective nearby. The cheap cost and the ability to be a jerk in smaller games made it shine.

[aeroplane]

Ok, if you must use the insane old buggers, the best configuration is Missile Launcher, dread close combat weapon, and heavy flamer.

 

That way if it fire frenzies your own stuff you can choose to use the missiles that hurt less (Frag).

 

The point here is that you go rhino/chimera/transport hunting with them... and to be effective, you really need to use two or three of them, so you have the statistical chance of most of your guys actually working this turn. If you use them to pop open transports, you should have a decent experience using them. Again, for it to work, you must use more than one.

 

Although it has been said before, many times, many ways, crazed sucks. You loose control of your dread twice in a normal game... BUT, dreads are awesome models, and you might as well have a few, because they look totally awesome.